7 Deadly Gaming Sins - SLOTH!
*Yawn* We'll patch it......tomorrow....zzzzz.
Making video games is a bloody hard task. From start to finish whether you're part of a team or a solo developer there are so many things to create, test, break, test, and test again that it would make your head spin. One can see the lengths that developers push themselves to in order to get their game to market in projects like Indie Game: The Movie, in which making games comes at the detriment of the subject's mental and physical health.
These are stories of extreme effort, passion, and care. However, the industry at large doesn't seem to reflect this as there are many more examples of laziness, apathy, and lack of care for the product or it's customers. The examples on this descent into gaming hell aren't simple cases of bugs, glitches, and content that had to be cut for deadline reasons, these are pinpoint moments in which franchises, developers, and the community at large allowed lethargy to seep into the experience and ruin things for others.
So let's take a look at times when those taking a more comfortable approach caused discomfort for others as we take a look at another Deadly Gaming Sin....SLOTH.
7. Delivering Broken Games + Making Fans Patch Them
As depressing as it is to acknowledge, most video games, be they triple-A or bedroom developed indie game ship with bugs and glitches. Now I know it's very easy to get up onto the soapbox and deride each of these moments as being unacceptable, but I must step in quickly to state that programming, even on a "basic level" (which is far beyond anything I can do) is exceptionally tough and I do believe in giving a little leeway to devs if there's a few strings of code out of place at launch.
HOWEVER. What is completely unacceptable, and a huge example of Sloth in the industry is when developers release games in a completely broken state under the guise of "fixing it later" especially when they fly the flag of "Early Access" as a means of delivering half baked titles to the player base while charging them full for the privilege.
In cases like Batman: Arkham Knight Warner Bros. knew for months prior to the game's launch that there were game-breaking bugs for the PC version but dropped the title anyway just to get that quick cash injection, and in countless other examples, we've seen the fans themselves have to step in and fix the issues. Dark Souls and it's Remaster, Red Dead Redemption 2, Multiple Fallout and Elder Scrolls games, all have had day one patches provided by the community rather than the creators, and that simply is inexcusable.
Remember we're PAYING for these experiences.